McDonald's employee foils early morning armed robbery attempt

NEWNAN, Ga. - Thieves targeted a woman who pulled up to a drive-thru ATM to get cash, but police said the crooks did not get any money because a woman at a nearby business saw them and jumped into action, scaring them off.

Police are calling her a heroic woman and thanks to her quick thinking, the situation didn’t get out of control.

“At the end of the day, I gotta do my job,” said Sporty Banks

Banks, 51, arrived before dawn each day to sweep and pick up trash at a Newnan McDonald's.

“The early bird catches the worm,” said Banks.

That is what she was doing in the dark parking lot on lower Fayetteville Road when she heard a woman screaming at the next-door bank ATM. The woman in the car was being robbed.

“I dropped my dust pan and broom and I turned around and I said ‘Hey! Hey!’ And she's like ‘They're trying to rob me. Help me,’” said Banks. “So, when I said ‘Hey! Hey!’ the guys went out.”

Banks was successful in chasing them away. She brought the women into the McDonald's and comforted her. When she learned the woman's ATM card was still in the machine, she went back out into the dark parking lot and with two gunmen lurking nearby to retrieve the card.

"Everyone's supposed to help somebody and I thank God I that I was there to help her," said Banks.

Hailed a hero, Banks has a message for the two men.

"What I say about them, they need to get a J-O-B; which is a job. Everyone needs a job. If you're old enough to rob, you're old enough to work," said Banks. “We have innocent people getting messed up for no reason because we have sorry young guys or grown men or whatnot, doing the wrong thing."

Later, a second attempted robbery at another Wells Fargo Bank, this one on Bullsboro Drive in Newnan. Investigators believe the two are connected.